State leaders hold virtual town hall on pandemic

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WTRF) – Public leaders from Charleston, joined by U.S. West Virginia Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, answered your questions about the COVID-19 Pandemic in a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday night.

Senator Manchin says if you work in West Virginia but are laid off, you may qualify for the unemployment and cares act, even if you never have before. You can check if you qualify by going to your unemployment insurance office, either online or in-person.

According to Manchin, anyone who qualifies should receive a $600 check, on top of their unemployment check.

Officials also say Senators Manchin and Capito are in-the-process of getting more tests and expanding them, so that the results from testing may soon take hours, or even minutes.

Testing is tough because it’s not available for everyone. Everyone would like to have a test to say ‘okay, I’m not effected.’ The bottom line is there’s people who have to qualify for the test right now.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin

Manchin says we should be taking care of testing and have some kind of availability to get treatment, or else we might not see a recovery.